Sriracha sauce too hot for the neighbors

Updated 5:07 pm, Saturday, November 30, 2013

Bottles of Sriracha hot sauce travel down a conveyor at the Irwindale plant.

Bottles of Sriracha hot sauce travel down a conveyor at the Irwindale plant.

Photo: Patrick T. Fallon, Bloomberg

Sriracha sauce too hot for the neighbors

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Buy your bottles now, folks.

Sriracha - that bright red hot sauce that comes in a distinctive, green-capped bottle adorned with a rooster - is wildly popular with everyone from college students to high-end chefs (it's one of the country's best-selling condiments). But the hot sauce's days may be numbered.

Huy Fong Foods, the company that makes Sriracha sauce in Irwindale (Los Angeles County), was ordered to stop operations this week. It turns out that Sriracha's sweet-savory kick was creating noxious fumes that were irritating the noses and throats of the neighbors.

In October, they sued Huy Fong for failing to do enough to stop the smell - and this week a Los Angeles Superior Court judge gave them a partial victory. According to the court order, Huy Fong must stop production of "anything that causes odors" and "immediately make changes in its site operations."

The company says it has enough chiles roasted for next year's batch, but after that, who knows?

We urge the city of Irwindale to work with the company to resolve this as quickly as possible. The same chiles that are irritating the neighbors are giving pleasure to millions all over the country.

In the meantime, we're not taking any chances. Forget must-have toys; Sriracha sauce just might be the hottest item for this year's holiday season.